Evans Hunter passes away
Evans Nii Oma Hunter, one of this country’s best-known known stage and screen actors, died in Accra on Tuesday, June 4 after a short illness. He was 70.
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One-time president of the Ghana Actors Guild, Hunter was the founder and Artistic Director of Audience Awareness Artistic Organisation.
He had been active in theatre since the early 1960s functioning on various levels as an actor, producer, director and writer.
Some of the films Hunter acted in included King Ampaw’s Kukurantumi and No Time To Die; Ama directed by Kwesi Owusu and Kwate Nee-Owoo; Kwaw Ansah’s Heritage Africa and the Fortune Island television series directed by Ivan Quashigah.
As a theatre director, plays he directed for his Audience Awareness Artistic Organisation included Sumanguru, a historical play written by Kris Atta Pappoe; Love Is the Best Doctor, a comedy by the French writer Moliere and The Patriots written by Sierra Leonian dramatist Serif Easmon.
Others were The King Must Dance Naked, written by Nigerian Fred Agbeyegbe and his own Oh When The Rainy Season Comes with which the Audience Awareness Artistic Organisation participated in the Sixth International Theatre Festival of Yaounde in Cameroun in May 1997.
Film director, Kwaw Ansah worked with Hunter in the mid-1960s on plays like The Lion and the Jewel, The Trials of Brother Jero, A Prayer Before Birth and Mothers Tears.
He said Hunter’s overwhelming love for the arts and the diversity of roles he played in film, television and on stage and radio revealed a personality with a natural urge to act.
“He loved acting so much and did it with a lot of passion. He was a true professional when it came to acting. He was one an individual who never waited for support from anybody before pushing ahead with his stage productions. He helped strengthen the theatre scene in this country,” Kwaw Ansah added.
Another film director, King Ampaw also praised Hunter for the way he cooperated with directors during filming and said this country had lost a soul completely dedicated to the creative arts.
Funeral arrangements for Hunter will be announced later.
By Kouame Koulibaly